Cops bust driveway marijuana refining lab

OROVILLE — Two men were arrested early Wednesday in connection with a marijuana refining lab they were allegedly operating in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Oroville, according to the Oroville Police Department.

Police were called around 12:18 a.m. by a citizen who said people were huffing paint and burning something in the driveway of an apartment building in the 1500 block of Pomona Avenue.

Oroville Sgt. John Bruschi said in a press release that officers who arrived at the address quickly detained three males after observing them in the process of refining marijuana in the apartment driveway.

The active lab was apparently seen bubbling in the parking lot.

Smelling a strong gas odor, the officers also saw a lit stove-top burner through the open door of an apartment.

Police immediately evacuated four adults and three young children from the two-story, four-apartment complex due to the extreme flammability of the butane lab.

Power and gas were shut off to the suspect apartment by Oroville Fire Department.

Butte County Sheriff's investigators from the Special Enforcement Unit also responded to the scene and later obtained a search warrant, collecting additional related evidence inside the apartment.